Borys Kit wrote: Are you ready for a Lethal Weapon reboot? How about a remake of The Wild Bunch?

Those are some of the few high-profile titles now getting a new lease on life at Warner Bros. due to the year-end departure of longtime studio executive Jessica Goodman. During her 13-year tenure, the executive vp oversaw such projects as Watchmen, Training Day and the upcoming Green Lantern. Since her departure, the studio’s top brass has reassigned her portfolio among several other execs.

In the file were long-in-development remakes of The Dirty Dozen and Oh, God, as well as Tarzan -- titles that have been active in recent years but haven’t come together with the right talent to score the elusive green light. Also in the mix are a reboots of the Mel Gibson-Danny Glover franchise Lethal Weapon, as well as remakes of Westworld and The Wild Bunch.

The properties will now get fresh and hungry eyes -- and talent agents are already chatting up the potential projects and listing clients they can pitch for directing or writing gigs.

Will any of the library titles get fast-tracked? Here’s our take on the big questions the studio needs to consider:

* Lethal Weapon: What was considered an “event” movie in the late 1980s seems almost quaint in 2011 (no matter how awesome the first two movies are). The concept is essentially a police procedural featuring a mismatched pair of detectives. The chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, coupled with Richard Donner’s direction and a sharp script from a young Shane Black, turned this into a franchise. But one wrong move and it could have been Tango and Cash or Cop-Out. The studio would need to make a risky bet on casting -- Jeremy Renner in the Gibson role? -- and recruit a hot action director to make this feel fresh. And even though the temptation might be to go big-budget (Warners likes to go big), perhaps a smaller, grittier Weapon might re-establish its credibility.

* Westworld: Here’s a remake that could actually benefit from a 21st Century dusting. MGM first produced this Michael Crichton-penned movie back in 1973 and Warners has been trying to remake it since the 1990s. Technology alone is almost reason enough to remake it. But what makes it appealingly remake-able is that Westworld’s story is based on a big idea: a robot attraction at a theme park that turns on its visitors. With Transformers making billions for Paramount and DreamWorks, Warners could use a big-idea robot movie to sell around the world.

* The Wild Bunch: How can the studio even consider remaking the Sam Peckinpah Western classic? Two words: True Grit. Many weren’t happy that the Coen Brothers were doing a new adaptation but the Western has turned into the duo’s biggest hit ($129 million at the boxoffice and counting) and has people talking Oscar nominations. But just as True Grit required the attention of top filmmakers with a distinct point of view, the same goes for a movie as seminal as Wild Bunch. Warners couldn’t hire a journeyman scribe for the project. They would need to lure an A-list filmmaker who really, really wants to do it. Danny Boyle hasn’t tacked a Western, has he? What would Aaron Sorkin dialogue sound like if delivered in cowboy hats?

Peven wrote:you know, that shit about saying WB should remake "Westworld" so they can have their own robot movie to counteract "Transformers" is the kind of creatively bankrupt market-based bullshit mentality that produces so much of the drivel that comes out of Hollywood...that author should be taken out and flogged for using it as a legit motivation

MIKE FLEMING wrote:Warner Bros and producer Joel Silver have set Will Beall to write Lethal Weapon, with a take that will relaunch the buddy cop series with a new cast. Beall, a former LA police officer who patrolled South Central and wrote the novel L.A. Rex, has seen his stock rise at the studio because of his script Gangster Squad, the period crime drama about an elite crime squad that fought against organized crime kingpins like Mickey Cohen. Zombieland helmer Ruben Fleischer has come aboard to direct that film.

Warner Bros has been messing around for some time with Lethal Weapon 5, with a treatment written by original scribe Shane Black. The plan was to bring the original team back, but schedules didn't match up and Mel Gibson's image has taken a self-inflicted beating. Beall pitched a take that maintains the tone of the original--a hard R-rated edgy street cop movie.

SilentBobX wrote:I vote FUCK NO times infinity +1

Mahalo

Cpt Kirks 2pay wrote:Slag off Lethal Weapon 5 (Shane Black, how could you? You hypocrit) and the remake as much as you want. But you all know you'll go and see it.

Claude Brodesser-Akner wrote:Finally, Warner Bros. is dusting off another Joel Silver–produced project, a long-moldering buddy-cop script that has been in development for years at the studio called Fully Automatic, which the studio hopes to use to revive the magic of its once-mighty Lethal Weapon franchise; we hear that Justin Timberlake just attached himself to star in the project.

Now that's the way to do it! Not an afterthought sequel, not a movie bogged down by the trappings of an official remake, just a movie with a similiar vibe. A LETHAL WEAPON-inspired movie. Good job Joel Silver. Thank you for this news Butcher, I will probably see this FULLY AUTOMATIC.

I'll also say that I like the way Justin Timerlake has been playing his acting career. Back when he was considered a sexy RnB star, everybody assumed he'd jump right into some big sexy hero lead role, but he did his time in supporting roles, frequently playing up that he's a skinny dorky looking guy. I liked him in BLACK SNAKE MOAN, ALPHA DOG and that bullshit FACEBOOK movie. I haven't seen YOGI BEAR or FUCKBUDDIES 2. Now I think he's ready to bring his sexy back.

Claude Brodesser-Akner wrote:Finally, Warner Bros. is dusting off another Joel Silver–produced project, a long-moldering buddy-cop script that has been in development for years at the studio called Fully Automatic, which the studio hopes to use to revive the magic of its once-mighty Lethal Weapon franchise; we hear that Justin Timberlake just attached himself to star in the project.

“I wrote a 62-page treatment with my friend Chuck for “Lethal Weapon 5” that would’ve been, I think, a very good movie. It was interesting. It was essentially an older Riggs and Murtagh in New York City during the worst blizzard in east coast history, fighting a team of expert Blackwater guys from Afghanistan that’s smuggling antiquities. And we had a young character that actually counter-pointed them. But I didn’t wanna do what people do when they’re trying to transition which is, they sorta put the two older guys in the movie, but really it’s about their son! And he’s gonna take over and we’re gonna do a spinoff. Fuck that, if they’re gonna be in the movie, they’re gonna be in the movie — I don’t care how old they are.”

Richard Donner wrote:“It’s a story I came up with with Channing Gibson, the writer who wrote 4, and I’m just having to work it out with the studio. If everybody steps up and we all get together, we’ll make it. Mel [Gibson] and Danny [Glover] are on board," he said. "If they don’t… if it doesn’t work out, at least we tried. But there’s a good… a better chance that you’ll see the movie."

“I was thinking about it for a long time, but I never did anything about it. But then, just before the summer, I was honored by the Academy. And at the function, Mel and Danny were there, among others, to tell their stories about me. When I saw them on stage again, the two of them… and the audience loved them. A thousand people were there. Just loved everything they did. When it was all over and I was driving home with Lauren [Shuler Donner], I said y’know, I think it’s time. I think people want to see them, and it’s time to put them to bed. I started it then and I worked on it during the summer. Then Channing Gibson came into help, and he added 100 percent.”